Question 2

In my film, there are only two main characters in the film's opening sequence, these 2 characters are Cathryn, the female victim, and the antagonist who's identity remain hidden throughout the opening sequence. Both characters are conventional to the thriller genre, this is because of the fact that this is the opening sequence, the narrative has just begun so the chances of any thriller having more than a handful of key characters is highly unlikely as this would only confuse the audience to a degree where they wouldn't know who is who, by only showing 2 main characters so far, we make it easier for the audience to understand, this way they're less confused about the narrative and characters in this world.

The reason why I included them both into the film's opening sequence was because these would be the films main characters throughout the rest of the narrative, the reason for Cathryn specifically is because of her age, she is the same age as my target audience, which is the 15 and older demographic, this allows my target audience to relate to her character more meaning that they will build up a relationship with her through the duration of the film, this is also done by her being completely isolated throughout the scene apart from the antagonist who is stalking her, the audience know this as an over the shoulder shot is used to display this perfectly, the audience then have an expectation on what's going to happen but they don't really want it to happen.

The female victim or Cathryn is represented in a stereotypical way because this is what my target audience wanted for my product this was when I was gathering research for my film by asking my target audience these questions on what they wanted in a thriller film, the narrative and the location of the opening sequence also conveys why she is the victim as she is in a dark forest trying to get home while someone is stalking her. The reason it is stereotypical is because it's seen as a convention to a thriller and that is what I was trying to aim for my thriller, for it to be as conventional as possible towards the thriller genre. Cathryn appeals to the audience as she is within the same age group as them which is 15 and older, this was the target audiences age roughly, this means that the audience would have an easier time relating to her character as she is a normal girl of that age, this further enables to build up a relationship with Cathryn as they already feel sympathy towards her as she is all alone in the setting of the forest. Cathryn is also a female gender stereotype as she has been portrayed as quite frail and weak in the opening sequence as she gets captured 

This is a different story for the antagonist but his character is relevant to the narrative as this gives the narrative a disequilibrium that my narrative is trying to attempt, the audience also feel the enigma behind this character and try and guess who it could be in relation to the narrative. I decided to add him into the narrative in the opening sequence as well because he could illustrate many of the genres conventions, for example, the antagonist is best suited to have a murder weapon, my antagonist uses the knife which is conventional to the thriller and is exactly what my target audience wanted. The antagonist is also completely mysterious, he has no name, gender or face at this point that the audience can put on him, he is a ghost to them at this point, the reason behind this is because the audience won't relate to him at all and instead of being well suited and accustomed to him, they then consider the reason for this is because he is the antagonist and most thrillers don't have the audience feeling empathy or sympathy for the ones doing all the killing.